Naruto : Hidden Cloud

"Sato kun.."

Hinata wiped her tears while sobbing lightly; she choked a bit before saying. 

"It's Orochimaru; Orochimaru killed them, Sato kun. We made a mistake; the boy they were following wasn't a random creep, he was Orochimaru."

Hinata said helplessly, and Sato clenched his fists. He made a mistake; this was an error in his judgment.

"I got them killed; I chose the wrong target."

Sato gritted his teeth in frustration. This was a loss he didn't need to take; it was a dumb loss, an accident he didn't see coming. 

"But then, who was that girl? Why was she behaving like that?"

Sato punched the tree beside him, making a dent in the trunk. Hinata shook her head. 

"I don't know, but her chakra is shaky; she is definitely using the transformation jutsu."

Hinata pursed her lips and wiped her tears again. Sato took a deep breath. He needed to fix this blunder; there might still be a solution.

"Hinata, where are their bodies? Let's go get them; maybe I can ask Tsunade to clone new bodies for them."

"The resurrection technique I created can revive them; if Tsunade helps me, there is still a chance."

Sato was hopeful; not all hope was lost. He just needed to convince Tsunade somehow. 

Turning towards Hinata, Sato was about to ask her why she was not speaking until his eyes shook. 

He smelled something he didn't want to smell right now; this was the smell of snakes. That could only mean one thing.

"Orochimaru..!"

Sato's head snapped back, and sitting on a branch behind them was Orochimaru. The man was smiling creepily at them.

As for Hinata, she was closing her mouth in shock. Sato didn't know what she saw, but it couldn't be anything good.

"Sato kun, we meet again."

Orochimaru licked his lips while staring at Sato with snake-like eyes. Sato frowned yet maintained his cool.

He had told Hinata to keep an eye on Orochimaru, just so he couldn't sneak up on them like this, but he won't blame her for failing now.

Orochimaru was a kage-level ninja, and Hinata was very much shaken by Neji's death. It's natural that she didn't see Orochimaru coming. 

"Orochimaru, why did you kill my men?"

Sato was silent for a few seconds before asking a question. Orochimaru smirked and narrowed his eyes.

"I want you, Sato Kun; you are the most talented young ninja alive. But you are a bit too cautious; you are never alone."

"You surround yourself with strong men; I had no choice but to get rid of your guards one by one."

Orochimaru laughed a hoarse laugh, and Sato frowned tighter. It was clear that Orochimaru had collected information on him.

He was completely targeted by Orochimaru. This was not a good thing. Sato decided to bail out. That was the smartest thing to do.

He would return after taking Itachi, Fugaku, and Shisui with him; for now, he wanted to escape and collect the bodies of Neji's squad.

"Do you want to leave Sato Kun? Are you perhaps thinking about reviving your dead friends?"

Sato raised his eyebrows. Orochimaru had too much information about them. Was he that good at collecting information?

"Hahaha, you shouldn't bother with them anymore; you won't survive beyond today anyway."

Orochimaru smiled creepily and jumped down. Sato took a step back, and his body flashed with electricity. 

Sato was threatening Orochimaru, but Orochimaru seemed to not mind. His body softened, and he looked ready to attack.

"Give up, Sato kun; it's no use; you can't revive your men; look, your wife already knows."

"You need their corpse to clone a new body for them before you revive them, but their bodies are gone. My summoned snakes have eaten them completely."

Orochimaru laughed as Sato's eyes slowly widened. Orochimaru loved the happiness of hunting down his prey and the thrill of breaking their spirit.

But somehow the pressure he was sensing from Sato wasn't decreasing; instead, it was slowly increasing. 

"Hinata, is that true? We don't have their DNA. He destroyed it all?"

The veins on Sato's head were throbbing, his forehead was filled with root-like veins, he looked less like a human and more like a demon from demon slayer.

"Yes, yes, they were eaten."

Hinata stuttered with a sob, this was all it took for Haku to snap. He was enraged; his friends were ruthlessly killed.

Haku was about to rush forward, but a flash of lightning rushed towards Orochimaru before he could even blink. 

"Hell stab!"

Sato exclaimed and hell-stabbed Orochimaru's head on the spot. He struck with the strongest attack a Raikage had in his arsenal. 

Booom

Orochimaru's head popped like a water balloon, yet almost immediately a new Orochimaru slipped out of the ground. 

"Lariat!"

Before Orochimaru could even stand, Sato struck his chin from the ground, his muscles bulging with strength. 

Snap

Orochimaru's head snapped back, the sickening crack in his neck was clearly audible. 

"Hahahaha! Amazing!"

But Orochimaru kept laughing even with his head smashed, not even caring about his injuries. He was much more interested in Sato's strength. 

"You have the perfect body, Sato Kun, much better than Kimimaro. You have so much untapped potential!"

Orochimaru was happy; before this fight, he was wondering if Sato's information was real, but Sato does indeed have amazing strength!

What Orochimaru didn't know was that Sato's potential was exhausted; even his future potential was used up. Sato was nothing but a dry well at this point.

He was strong, but he had no hope for future upgrades. This is why Orochimaru made such a big mistake; he didn't know the reason Sato was so strong wasn't due to potential, but to external help.

Orochimaru licked his lips, snapped his neck back into place, and said.

"Sato kun-"

"Ice release, frozen wasteland."

Before Orochimaru could say something, Haku cut him off and a heavy blast of cold air covered the area.

Even Karin trembled from the cold; mist was coming out of her mouth, as for Orochimaru, he was completely frozen in ice.

Crack

The sealing ice shook before it started cracking little by little. Although neither Haku nor Sato cared; they rushed forward and struck Orochimaru at the same time.

"Double lariat!"

This was the AB combination, now used by the new generation, Sato and Haku. Orochimaru took the full brunt of this attack head-on.

Smash

The ice was smashed into pieces, as for Orochimaru, he was shattered into countless chunks. 

"Huff, huff."

Haku was panting with some frozen sweat on his body.

Freezing Orochimaru took a toll on his chakra; his jonin-level strength wasn't enough to immobilize a kage for too long.

Wiggle

Yet before the group could relax, a tiny snake poked its head out of Orochimaru's dead body and looked greedily at Sato.

Swish

The snake struck Sato like lightning, but Sato, who never turned off his chakra cloak, glared at the snake.

"Lightning chop."

He instantly chopped the snake's head off, the tiny snake widened it's eyes. Orochimaru was sure Sato wouldn't notice such a small snake. This was his secret plan, he wanted to use his snake body to sneak attack Sato.

But it failed. How could it fail, Sato should have let his guard down after killing his physical body!

'I know more about you than you know about me, Orochimaru.'

Sato swiftly caught the snake's decapitated head and looked Orochimaru in the eye before crushing it into pieces.

"Scum."

Sato spat, he had done it, he had killed Orochimaru.